[ExI] Open Individualism

[Jason Resch]

Henry,

This is fascinating. I had no idea such research had been done to look at
these things. I will need some time to review all the references you have
provided. Thank you.

Jason

On Fri, Jan 5, 2024, 9:23 PM Henry Rivera <hrivera at alumni.virginia.edu>
wrote:

>
> On Jan 5, 2024, at 8:49 AM, Jason Resch via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> …
>
> On Thu, Jan 4, 2024, 9:12 PM Henry Rivera via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>> It’s metaphysical.
>>
>> …
>>
> A takeaway for me is that this suggests that we can promote peace and
>> unity and the benefits noted in Bill‘s moral prescription post by promoting
>> ego-loss/psychedelic experiences.
>>
>
> Do most people have the experience of ego-loss in your experience? And
> does it happen reliably for those it happens to?
>
> Jason
>
>
> It’s highly dose-dependent for most psychedelics, LSD being the prototype
> and most studied. DMT and ketamine for example will have a different slope
> relative to most other psychedelics in a graph of the relationship between
> dose and “depth” of a psychedelic experience and also ego-loss, but there
> is still causal relationship there.
>
>
> You can see the dose-dependent relationship in the charts
> in “Dose-response relationships of LSD-induced subjective experiences in
> humans“ (2023) in Neuropsychopharmocology at
> https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-023-01588-2
>
>
> In particular, notice the charts for Dread of Ego Dissolution and
> Experience of Unity (full res image of the charts here
> https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-023-01588-2/figures/1)
>
>
> I’d say a threshold dose of 100 micrograms needs to be passed
> to experience some degree of ego-loss.
>
>
> The Ego-Dissolution Inventory <https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27378878/>,
> which highly correlates with the “Unity” factor of the Mystical
> Experience Questionnaire
> <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5203697/>, is often used to
> examine the depth of ego loss that a participant has felt. This has been
> used to document the dose dependence I’ve described with psilocybin use as
> well. See “Psilocybin occasioned mystical-type experiences: immediate and
> persisting dose-related effects” (2011).
> https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21674151/
>
>
> Here’s a nice quote that captures the connection between ego-loss and open
> individualism I think:
>
>
> “What is Ego Dissolution on Psychedelics Like?
>
> According to our good friends at DoubleBlind,
> <https://doubleblindmag.com/ego-death/> the ego death or ego dissolution
> experience is described as being: “You are fully “in the moment
> <https://doubleblindmag.com/what-does-it-mean-to-be-here-now/>” and able
> to see things from a macroscopic, more objective perspective. You are no
> longer an individual isolated from life as it takes place around you, but
> rather feel interconnected with the universe and all its inhabitants,
> experiencing intense feelings of love, euphoria, and unity while the self
> is temporarily forgotten. This state of selflessness and subsequent
> feelings of connectivity with the universe are often referred to as “ego
> death.””
> https://psychedelic.support/resources/ego-dissolution-during-psychedelic-experiences/
>
>
> As this also came up in this thread, if anyone is interested, here is an
> article that argues that “Ego dissolution experiences reveal that the
> self-model plays an important binding function in cognitive processing, but
> the self does not exist.”
> https://academic.oup.com/nc/article/2017/1/nix016/3916730?login=false
>
> Provocative, I know. I haven’t read that one yet incidentally.
>
>
> Take care
>
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